Game designer must know four links

The first part, the duty article

After you get through your favorite game, you might stop and think, "What a stunning game!" I wish I could make the same amazing game as it is! "Why don't you start acting?" But how do I become a game designer? What skills and qualities do I need? What is a game designer doing? Before becoming a game designer, there are a lot of important questions to answer. So I decided to write a series of related posts! Next, let's discuss the 1th part: What is the task of a game designer?

Responsibility 1: Creating Experience

Experience-crafter

The game is actually a kind of experience, such as experiencing becoming a medieval application and experiencing becoming a soldier. Even the most basic game is made up of a series of experiences. Take "bean-eating man" as an example. You experience the feeling of being a collector, converting between being chased and becoming a pursuer (game State Note: Both experiences are exciting). The reason why a player feels fun is because he is experiencing something he likes, and ensuring that the quality of the experience is your job! It should be noted that you are not necessarily the person who brings up the core experience of the game. If you come up with the idea of making a loach adventure game, and a technician is proposing a fantastic RPG idea for the player to play the wizard, the team is likely to opt for the latter. Your task, then, is to make sure that the player feels that he is a frightening and powerful mystical wizard.

Let's say we're making a game where players play superheroes. It's an attractive experience! Everyone wants to know what it feels like to be a superhero. Your idea attracts the attention of the player, but that doesn't mean the experience has come true.

What would the experience be without the challenging villains? This will greatly affect the superhero experience, because the superhero story is part of being a superhero. Think about it, your favorite superhero rushes to the enemy and knocks it down in 3-5 seconds. This kind of environment is completely without the sense of tension! The superhero appeared in time and soon won. We have to make sure that players can experience this!

What if there are only challenging villains? So you can get a lot of nervousness, right? So, we add a few rivals to the game, so that's it! No! If the superhero is the same as the ordinary man he protects, then he is not a superhero! We need 500 thugs to show the player he's a superhero who can easily kill the 500 thugs. Superheroes are powerful and players must be able to feel this.

What if the control is riddled with loopholes? The problem seems a bit off, but control is really important. How would you feel if you were a superhero and couldn't control your body according to your needs? You may go straight into a building because you can't control your body properly. It will affect the player's ability to experience the role, so the problem of control bias must be corrected.

I can also explain more about the experience, but this time I'll stop here. The point is that you are responsible for creating the experience. You have to try to make the presentation experience only possible for the player to believe and feel, leverage mechanisms, timing, stories, possibilities, controls, game assets, rewards, penalties, and a few art styles, animations, and sound effects (game notes: This part is more like the work of an art person and sound designer).

Responsibility 2: Expression and communication

You have the idea of the game and now it's time to share it with the team! This level seems simple, just tell them the idea, doesn't it? In fact, you have more things to do. You have to convince the team that this idea will bring

The game experience, it is worthwhile to pay time and effort to carry out. Let's break down this sentence.

"You have to convince the team ..." That means you need to take the time to prepare to talk to the team. Organize content, anticipate problems, and make sure everything is clear. Good game designers should be able to design their own statements.

“...... This idea will enhance the gaming experience ... "You're not telling the team what to do, you're trying to get them to feel the experience they've conceived." Take the Martian flytrap Studio for example, the programmer BAS often critically think about the ideas I put forward. He should have done it, because if these ideas were bad, he would have wasted time and money! I have to show him the background and use of ideas so that we can agree on real implementation. Sometimes, the idea is only to change the narrative level. "No, the role is not jumping, but the use of rocket aircraft", which is a different view of the game design, but the mechanism remains unchanged.

The level of "giving time and effort" is simpler. Understand your team and explore how difficult your ideas are to execute. You are not an expert, but you can have a good intuition. If you know the cost of carrying out your ideas, you'll see if your ideas are worth doing.

Often, execution ideas can be implemented in a variety of ways. You must also listen carefully to the whole team! If you're talking to a team about an idea, they think it's a bad idea, and there are two reasons why it might be: either your presentation is not good enough or your ideas are really bad.

The latter is 100 times times more likely to be the former, especially if your collaborators are open and attentive people. Remember, your thoughts are probably not as good as you think! It's just part of the game development process!

By the way, writing game design files is also a form of communication!

Responsibility 3: Test and modify

After the experience has been recognized by the team, you let the artists and programmers perform the game ideas. However, the completion of game development does not mean that your work is over. The important work is just coming. Game designers should look for players to test the game and modify the game according to their feedback. This process

It takes a lot of work and consumes a lot of time. Especially during the polishing phase of the development process, you need to constantly cycle through the test and modify the cycle. The range of modifications ranges from changing some parameters to completely changing the way players get experience. Sometimes you go back to the job of responsibility 1, the manufacturing experience. In this case, it should be called "remanufacturing". Moreover, the useless content should be boldly discarded. For content that cannot be modified, we should take it out and try to modify the remaining content. Don't worry about content being discarded, this is an important part of the development process. We encourage you to test the game as quickly and frequently as possible so that you can change the improper content in the game earlier and easily.

It is also important to find the right person to test the game, and it is also the job of the game designer to invite testers. You have to know the testers, know the game experience and know your game. Sometimes it is better to test the game on the same person many times, sometimes it is better to test the game with new objects.

Second link, quality Chapter

Excellent Speaker/writer

raconteur

Obviously, if you want to communicate extensively, you have to have communication skills first. You need to communicate with other designers, programmers, artists, business people, distributors, and sometimes even your own target audience. Suppose you need a group meeting to introduce a game mechanism to a team member. If your speech lacks enthusiasm and is uninteresting, members tend to divert attention. They will misinterpret your opinion, or even feel that your content is boring because your speech is boring. If your expression is ambiguous, the listener will confused and misinterpret the content. Communicate with team members to make sure that the content is simple and concise, just like writing a game design document. If the reader can grasp the content accurately, the whole test process will be shortened a lot.

Being able to impress others with words is an important skill for game designers. You are the only person who can explain the execution to a team member. So you have to make sure that the work is done successfully. If the game idea is not properly implemented, the reason should be that the content is not appropriate, and that your expression is not a cause for loss of interest. Similarly, if the game idea is executed incorrectly, then your expression work is not in place.

One extra point is that there is a lot in common in communicating well and creating good work. If you can impress people by language, you will probably be able to attract others ' attention through games.

Creative

Creativity

Of course you have to be creative. You want to design a new and interesting experience. Creating a new quality experience is the definition of creativity. Is that all?

No. People usually say, "I have a great game idea or mechanism!" This seems to be the place where creativity is embodied. Although the idea of creating new games is an effective use of creativity, it is rarely seen. Here's a look at the creative process:

* Creating mechanisms and ideas: suppose you want to create a superhero game. You have great ideas about how superheroes should move forward in the game and how to make the boss fight a wonderful one. This is very good. It's an interesting process to use creativity effectively, but unfortunately it's just part of the game design process.

* Ask a question: it sounds ridiculous, but the more you're good at asking questions about game mechanics and ideas, the better your ideas and mechanisms will be. This is the use of creativity to form a new perspective, to discover new problems. Communication with poor designers usually presents the following pattern:

-game designer: I have a great idea x!

-You: that sounds cool! But how the player will operate the Y content!

-game designer: Uh ... I haven't thought about it.

Communication with good designers ends with this:

-game designer: I also thought about this problem, players only need to do Z operation!

The shift perspective is an important part of game design, prompting creative people to put forward new ideas and identify problems based on this perspective. There is a shortage of your original machine, we need to refine repeatedly, before we can present excellent design. Using creative thinking to discover design new perspectives and new problems can effectively improve your "distillation" speed, allowing you to do more iterative operations. According to the cyclic rule, more frequent iterative processes mean that we will have more outstanding products.

* Create a reasonable solution: Now that you've discovered new problems through your creativity, it's time to use creativity to come up with a reasonable solution. The reasonable solution I refer to is a scheme that does not improve the complexity of the game. Your game can be very complex, but it should be because the game is designed to be complexity as a design goal, rather than: "There is a problem here, our only solution is to add more rules to deal with this exception." "It sounds simple, but finding solutions that don't bring more strange anomalies is a lot harder than it looks." If you can create a design that is unaffected by the change of perspective and does not appear to be particularly bloated, then you will be able to perform your creative skills well. This is the equivalent of the programmer "neatly coded" game design.

So designers should be creative, but don't forget to be creative when you come up with ideas.

Transposition Thinking

We are not trying to comfort others, why do designers need to understand empathy better than others?

If you think carefully, you will find it reasonable. Here's a look at the definition of empathy in the dictionary:

Ability to understand and penetrate the emotions of others through imagination

When players are experiencing games, they are exposed to something that can give them some kind of emotional content. For example, the powerful feeling of becoming a superhero is the fun of playing the evil overlord. What can be more in-depth grasp of the player's experience content than entering the player's character status? If you find that the player doesn't enjoy it during the game test, you have to explore the principle. If you can get out of yourself and integrate yourself into your role, the role will be very significant.

We will "train" empathy skills in many ways. First, they ask and listen and listen carefully. If the player is frustrated in the game's jump, he says, "This jump is awful," and "I don't seem to be able to finish this jump." You might think that both represent a jump mechanism that is not smooth enough. But in the first case, the player blames the game. In the second case, the player is blaming himself. If the player feels that the jump content sucks, then he creates a negative game process that contradicts the target experience. But in the second case, the game is not necessarily a bad experience, because players feel that they are in control position. Some games use a step-by-step model to improve the player's level of operation, even if the control device is at the top level (game State Note: The designer should listen carefully to the player's views and see through their language).

Another way to understand other people's feelings is to look at his/her body language, facial expression, posture, and attention: these can show motives and feelings that even the player is unaware of. Game designers often record the game testing process so that they can devote more time to analyzing the player's body language later. Understanding and entering the player's gaming experience is a very important skill for the designer.

In this regard, empathy skills seem to be used primarily for testing purposes, but in my view it can be applied to all aspects of the game design process:

* Experience shaping Process: Remember the previous mention of using your own creativity to explore new perspectives? Empathy skills can help you feel these new perspectives. Fundamentally, you are resonating with the other, trying to experience feelings that don't belong to you.

* Communication: Empathy is the core of communication. Understanding the views and motivations of others is essential for effective communication. Similarly, if you can listen carefully and resonate with your team members, you will find new perspectives, new problems, and new solutions that you have never met before. Listening to the views of team members is as important as communicating with them.

* Testing & Tuning: Similar to what is mentioned above.

It is difficult for designers who can't feel the motivation and experience of others to create content that attracts the attention of the player. Designers need a lot of quality, but I think the above 3 points are particularly important.

The third part, skill chapter

Game knowledge

Game knowledge

Do you know what the predecessors of this line often say?-game development has nothing to do with playing games! But this is the biggest lie! This is what your opponents are using to prevent you from being a good player to go beyond them. So what is the truth? Is there a deep connection between making games and playing games? If you've ever tried a variety of different games, you'll find that there are various mechanisms in the game. Then you wonder how the game works? Why are some games fun and some games boring? What is the theme of the game? How do other game content support this topic? What else needs to be improved? If you like to play those long time games, such as large multiplayer online role-playing games or competitive games, you need to learn to keep the balance of the game. Try a variety of games and learn to analyze them to help you better solve the problems you encounter in the game. If you're making a game that's similar to an existing game, you can effectively avoid the pitfalls of existing games, and if the problems you're facing are already being solved by other games, you don't have to do it yourself again. As long as you can pay attention to the progress of others, you will be able to achieve faster and steady progress.

You need to keep in mind that the experience you are positioning for your game may be different from the game experience you've played, so don't just blindly copy what you don't want out of your liking, let alone the experience of others! It's like World of Warcraft, it's a very prestigious game where developers have experience in game development and have a great opportunity to develop (if they miss one of the advantages, especially their reputation, it really means they have absolutely strong business). You need to break down any game you've ever played, modify it and use the game's solution to make it fit for your game. Everyone is doing it (game State Note: Just as everyone is using the arrow key mechanism now), why are You "prim"?

Mathematics and Computer Science

Do you want to get the favor of the developers on the team? Then try to learn math and computer science. Math will help you better deal with the many puzzles in game development, because most games need to involve the economy, and some content in the economy is presented in mathematical form. Role-playing games and strategy games are most obvious. Any game has its own balance point and a specific mathematical model, and their development team knows how to speed up their development process based on that content. In addition, the opportunity is not to be overlooked, it is a big part of the game. Opportunity is like a pure mathematical magic, because we like magic, so we choose to use it. By mastering the fundamentals of Mathematics you can create balanced games quickly and easily. Mathematical principles can also be effective in helping you program.

Knowing how to write scripts and programs is very helpful to designers. This will make it easier for you to modify any content and further clarify any potential development in the game. It also eases the pressure on programmers to avoid spending more time explaining things and making you feel like a fool. You also need to remember that knowing your team's work can help you better position and discuss. Just as you need to know what the developers on the team are doing, it will be able to speed up your process of change and promote better communication between you--the two most important things in the game designer's job.

Math and computer Science are the least important part of the list. So you don't have to be frustrated by your poor math. And I mention this because: if you know how to write a script or a program, you can't make excuses for "Ah, but I don't know how to write a computer program." This is the least tolerable of any aspiring game developer.

10,000 hours

Mathematica

You may know that this is the theory of Malcolm Gladwell (game State Note: A 10,000-hour success theory): You can become an expert in this field by spending 10,000 hours practicing something. I don't want to discuss this theory in detail here, just to prove that it works perfectly for game design. Game design is a broad field that is evolving with the experience that people have created or experienced, and people need to face all kinds of ideas, problems and people. So there is no theory that can help you "halfway". I know that "practice" is not a skill, but game design is too broad, so relying on only 3 skills is not enough to help you conquer this area.

So you need to continue to create the game! Create more games. Create a variety of different types of games. If you don't know how to create a game image or write a program, you need to learn these basic skills first or try to create a desktop/solitaire game first. You will be able to quickly learn about mechanism styles, design traps, and all kinds of people you need to communicate with. In addition, you can learn about the skills that are helpful to your chosen game type (perhaps biology or history), and you will be more specific about which skills will really push your game design forward.

Chapter four, the weak part

Sometimes, especially when you're just starting to practice your game design skills, you're likely to create a game that's not popular. Of course, you may be proud of your achievements, and your parents or friends will think your game is interesting, but only these people will recognize you. This is an overview method. You may have made 10 bad games before you created a really good game. Although this also depends on your talent, but Master game design requires you to devote a certain amount of time and effort. So don't lose heart if you don't succeed at first, just study the game and ask yourself, "Why is the game so bad?" What do I do better next time? . And then decisively stop making this bad game. Of course, it's hard for anyone to give up the work they've created, but you need to take that step anyway.

As you work on the creation of the game, your team members or testers will also criticize your game concepts or mechanisms. And they just want your game to be more perfect! Anyone can offer you valuable help, so be sure to listen to these comments. Don't put too much personal emotion in here, be too resistant to such criticism or feel discouraged; you should imagine this is not your own mechanism and then look at them again. Because your players are likely to look at these mechanisms as well! Most importantly, you must look at the rationality of the game idea. Many times these ideas may not be implemented as you think, and sometimes you need to learn to accept the fact that ideas are not feasible or too bad. So you should be able to discard bad ideas and use other mechanisms to try to solve the problems you face. It is a common situation in the game design field that you should be prepared to leave behind when you design the content.

If you are an aspiring game designer, beware of the pitfalls of "stifling creativity". You may be passionate about showing your game to your friends or loved ones, but just as you can see someone with a new haircut or a bad outfit that you can't bear to expose, your friends or loved ones will take this attitude toward your game. So when you show your game, and you really want to be able to improve your game design ability, please be sure to remind each other to be honest and say what they think. Just like you can just let them stop the game without wanting to continue the game.

In short, you should be prepared to create some content that lacks feasibility, learn from it, and discard them decisively.

Excuse me.

Excuse

When you get a great idea of the game, of course you want to be able to start making the game quickly. But unfortunately, you don't understand game programming and art making. So you can't make this game. You will complain that life is so bad! Maybe you should rethink your career choices at this point because it's too difficult for you to design the game.

If aspiring game designers always use this as an excuse, they will never be a real game designer. They lack the key elements needed to be a good designer. Worst of all, these people lack the creativity and determination to solve the problem. Why don't you learn programming tools like unity or gamemaker? Why don't you use placeholders or free web images until you find the right artist? Why don't you take the initiative to find a consensus partner in improving your communication skills? And if these methods fail, why don't you try to turn the game idea into a desktop game or paper model to test or present your ideas? Sure, making a game is not a simple job, and if you can't put in more effort, it's hard to find a place in the industry.

You may also develop these excuses when working with a team to create a game. You will complain that you have to wait for the artist and the programmer to implement your game idea. You will complain about how annoying and lazy the team members are. But you should be aware that there are still a lot of tasks you can implement in these waiting processes. For example, model A new game mechanism, balance some inappropriate content, create files for important content, organize game tests, and learn more about the game world by reading books or browsing Gamasutra. You can even practice your own programming and design skills by making small games. Don't try to keep yourself busy, knowing that the game world is much bigger than we thought.

Ambitious

To tell you the truth, I am also not good at this point, because I am often caught in this misunderstanding. Ambition is a double-edged sword. The game development team, especially when they lack relevant experience, always think they can create a very good game, and can achieve very good results. But as time goes by, people are always distracted or negative because of something, which can make it even harder for the entire development team to do the modeling work. The best way to avoid this trap is to know yourself and your team. You have to be objective and rational and determine if your team can meet the challenge. Have you ever encountered a project similar to the present? Whether it has similarity ... An orderly workflow will make you more realistic. For example, if you can't complete your scrum (game State Note: An iterative incremental software development process), you're not as powerful as you think you are. Unfortunately, this is usually a trial-and-test process. So you need to be stronger and learn more from it.

But! I definitely do not say: "Eh, make the game is too difficult, eh, do not have ambition!" "In game making, the contrast between belief and rationality is obvious. If you really think you can do this and believe that the ultimate goal is to withstand the test of failure, then you should let go. And the worst consequence of this is that you will feel the cruelty of reality, which, though it can be enlightened, has lost much of its time (and money). The best thing is that you can create very good work. Leonard Bernstein, a famous composer, once said: "It takes two things to accomplish any great work: a plan and never enough time." "I highly agree that if you really have the strength and confidence to withstand the pressure and responsibility, you can rest assured that the time and energy invested in this creation." It's risky to make a game that expresses your own ideas at the outset. In addition to the 10,000-hour rule (which we'll mention in the third part of this series), digging up your own capabilities isn't going to help you create a game piece. You should try to balance ambition and security so that you can really find the right way to create a game and feel the pleasure of creating a lucrative project.